Learn local lore, Cornell historian Earle says in ‘Last Lecture’
By Laura Gallup, Student and Campus Life
A stone fireplace in Willard Straight Hall’s Memorial Room is engraved with advice, including “treat all women with chivalry” and “keep your mind open.” The words are from a letter Willard Straight, Class of 1901, wrote to his son after enlisting in the Army during World War I.
And in his will, the elder Straight instructed his wife to use his estate to make Cornell “a more human place,” leading to the construction of Willard Straight Hall, a student activity hub since 1925.
“We learned all that just by being curious about an inscription on a stone fireplace,” said Corey Ryan Earle ’07, a principal gifts associate with Alumni Affairs and Development and the university’s longtime unofficial historian, in his “Last Lecture,” Dec. 4 in Uris Hall Auditorium. “Think about all the countless stories around this campus, around wherever you are, if you just noticed them. Stop and read the plaques and signs. Everywhere has a story.”